Jack is scouring the Internet for a job since he lost his full-time position due to his company decreasing labor costs and laying off a bulk of its employees. When Jack is not searching and applying to open positions, he is browsing the web for information on how to get a job. He has signed up for email job alerts and informative newsletters. Jack subscribes to an array of job information blogs, which post things such as “What to wear to an interview” and “The top 10 interview questions employers ask.”

Typically, Jack organizes and stores his favorite articles and websites into folders in his bookmarks bar, but now, since he is trying to network and brand himself to increase his job opportunities Jack joined StumbleUpon. StumbleUpon.com, which is a social bookmarking website, not only finds articles based on Jack’s interests but also allows Jack to connect with others, view which websites they like and recommend articles he finds helpful and informative.

Jack is one of a staffing agency’s buyer personas (a buyer persona is a detailed description of each specific customer you want to target); therefore, they not only want to appeal to his interests, but they also want him to utilize their services. How can they do this easily and effectively with minimal effort: Social bookmarking.

“Unlike that reference them, i.e. a link to the bookmarked page. Descriptions may be added to these bookmarks in the form of metadata, so users may understand the content of the resource without first needing to download it for themselves.”

“Tagging” is very important in social bookmarking because it is how users organize their information, similar to how they would create a folder in their bookmarks bar, called “Marketing Tools” for marketing resources and another folder called “Work” for work-related information.

Tags may be “free text comments, votes in favor of or against its quality, or tags that collectively or collaboratively become a folksonomy. Folksonomy is also called social tagging, “the process by which many users add metadata in the form of keywords to shared content.”

It is important to learn what your buyer personas’ “tags” or keywords are so he or she can simply stumble upon your information and find your website organically rather than dragging them to it kicking and screaming.

This was just the first of my social bookmarking series. Do you understand social bookmarking better now? Which parts are you confused about or would you like to learn more about? Please leave a comment to let me know for my future posts.